Why the Premier League Darts is perfect to bet on

Premier League Darts is almost upon us. The sport has arguably never been in a better place following Luke Littler’s crowning glory at the 2025 World Darts Championship.

A peak audience of 3.1m people watched Littler become darts’ youngest-ever world champion, defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in what was a fairly one-sided final. It's fast become one of the best betting sports in the UK too.

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The 18-year-old is the sport's hottest property and will be aiming to successfully defend his Premier League title that he won in 2024, beating then-world champion Luke Humphries in the final.

Established in 2005, the Premier League has gone from strength to strength since, with the event taking place over 17 consecutive Thursday evenings from February until May.

Held in the biggest venues across the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, the £1m prize fund is the biggest outside the World Championships.

Throughout the 20-year existence of the event, several formats have been tried and tested. Ahead of the 2022 season, Premier League Darts showcased their new format, which saw eight players taking part in a weekly tournament. 

The winner each week takes home £10,000 and five points, while the runner-up gains three points with two points going to each of the losing semi-finalists.

The top four players in the Premier League table after night 16 will progress to the play-offs in London on 29 May at the O2 Arena.

A fairly simple concept, but who are the eight contenders this year?

The contenders

The four best players in the ‘order of merit’ qualify automatically, while four wildcard picks complete the rest of the Premier League line-up.

Following the announcement of the line-up at the start of January, eyebrows were raised regarding the wildcard choices, most notably Gerwyn Price.

Several high-profile players missed out. Jonny Clayton and Dave Chisnall ranked sixth and seventh in the ‘order of merit’, yet both missed out. As did Damon Heta, who was number eight in the rankings at the time of the announcement.

Elsewhere, reigning World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker missed out, along with Dimitri van den Bergh, Peter Wright and Michael Smith.

Littler and Humphries will be the two players to stop this year. The pair contested the 2024 final, with Littler winning his first major PDC title in the process.

Humphries suffered a disappointing fourth-round exit at the World Championships, losing to an inspired performance by Wright. Despite failing to reach the final of either the Bahrain or Dutch Masters recently, the panic buttons won't be pressed just yet.

Michael van Gerwen has won the Premier League a staggering seven times, most recently in 2023, but will his defeat to Littler at the World Championships play on his mind?

Rounding off the automatic qualifiers is Rob Cross, a former runner-up in the event back in 2019. The Englishman won the Dutch Masters to claim his fifth World Series of Darts title, although he suffered an early exit at the PDC World Masters.

Stephen Bunting is the stand-out name of the wildcard picks. The 39-year-old is playing in the event for the first time since 2015 and it is due to his impressive form of late.

He reached the semi-finals of the World Championships, before going on to win the Bahrain Masters, following this up with another final appearance at the Dutch Masters, losing to Cross.

Price was runner-up to Van Gerwen in 2023, yet hasn’t quite produced consistent form since, failing to win a major title in 2024.

Nathan Aspinall reached the final in 2020 and semi-finals in 2021, but narrowly missed out on the play-offs in 2022 and 2023, finishing fifth.

Chris Dobey deserved his wildcard pick after reaching the semi-finals of the World Championships, and on his day, he is more than a match for anyone, including Littler and Humphries.

The Premier League is perfect to bet on

17 consecutive weeks of Premier League action ensures there are plenty of matches to bet on between the start of February and the end of May.

The same eight players take part every week, which makes betting on the competition slightly less risky compared to a regular competition on the PDC tour.

As the weeks progress, narratives begin to form concerning how each player is performing, which, in turn, can allow opportunities to be seized across a range of markets at the bookmakers.

While everyone can turn up on any given night and blow the opposition away, those towards the bottom of the table tend to lose confidence, especially as the play-offs edge closer. Making outright accumulators for the four quarter-final matches every week easier to predict.

An accumulator might be the most popular market, but in darts, several others can be fun to bet on. Indeed, plenty of value can be found in markets such as who will score the most 180s, whether there will be a 170 checkout during a game or even handicap betting.

Due to the short format – best of 11 legs – Premier League darts is high octane and extremely fun to not only watch but also to bet on.

Outright tips

Littler is the current favourite to win the tournament with BetMGM (11/8), but there is not much value in this, especially with the tournament spread out over 17 weeks, despite the 18-year-old looking like the man (or teenager) to beat.

Elsewhere, Bunting (14/1) via BetMGM certainly has the qualities to go all the way and win the Premier League. If he continues to play like he has done of late, making the play-offs should be more than achievable for the Bullet.

Anything can happen beyond this stage and Bunting’s success at the top level since claiming his first PDC major in 2024 will give him plenty of confidence.

Humphries (11/4) may have failed in the defence of his world title, but the short format of the Premier League suits his style.

Should ‘cool-hand Luke’ get off to a flying start over the first couple of weeks, this could well fire him to a maiden Premier League crown.

Check out all the latest Premier League darts odds, player profiles and up-to-date standings via BetMGM’s darts hub. 

Odds correct at the time of writing.